The Zurich police said the robbery took place Sunday. Also among the works stolen were oil paintings by Paul Cezanne and Edgar Degas.

Police called the heist a "spectacular art robbery," but did not identify the museum, saying only that it is in the city's eighth district.

Last week, Swiss police reported that two Pablo Picasso paintings were stolen from a Swiss exhibition near Zurich. The two oil paintings, "Tete de cheval" ("Head of horse") and "Verre et pichet" ("Glass and pitcher"), were on loan from the Sprengel Museum in Hannover, Germany.

Impressionist artworks stolen in Zurich: police1 hour ago

ZURICH (AFP) — Armed robbers have stolen paintings by Cezanne, Degas, Van Gogh and Monet worth more than 91 million dollars from a museum in Zurich, police said Monday.

They did not reveal the name of the museum where Sunday's theft took place, saying only that it is in the 8th district of the city.

That district is home to the Emil Buehrle Foundation, a private collection founded by a Zurich industrialist which boasts many Impressionist works.

"French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism constitute the core of the collection," the museum's website says. The foundation was unavailable for comment Monday.

The theft worth 100 million Swiss francs (91 million dollars, 63 million euros) came just days after thieves stole two paintings by Pablo Picasso worth 4.5 million dollars from a cultural centre in eastern Switzerland.

ZURICH, Switzerland - Paintings by Cezanne, Degas, van Gogh and Monet worth $163.2 million have been stolen from a Zurich museum by a gang of armed roobers, Swiss police said Monday.

The robbery of the four paintings occurred Sunday at the E.G. Buehrle Collection, one of Europe's finest private museums for Impressionist and post-Impressionist art, police said.

Three masked men who entered the building with pistols were still at large.A police statement said the three robbers, wearing ski masks and dark clothing, entered the museum a half-hour before closing time Sunday.

While one of the men used a pistol to force museum personnel to the floor, the other two went into the exhibition hall and collected the four masterpieces.

The men were about five feet, nine inches tall and one of them spoke German with a Slavic accent, the police said. They loaded the paintings into a white vehicle parked in front of the museum.

Police, asking for witnesses to come forward, said it was possible that the paintings were partly sticking out of the trunk as the robbers made their getaway.

A reward of $91,000 was offered for information leading to the recovery of the paintings - Claude Monet's "Poppy field at Vetheuil"; Edgar Degas' "Ludovic Lepic and his daughter"; Vincent van Gogh's "Blooming chestnut branches"; and Paul Cezanne's "Boy in the red waistcoat."

The FBI estimates the market for stolen art at $6 billion annually, and Interpol has about 30,000 pieces of stolen art in its database.

While only a fraction of pieces are ever found, the theft of iconic objects, especially by force, is rarer because of the intense police work that follows and because the works are so difficult to sell.

Sunday's theft came days after Swiss police reported that two Pablo Picasso paintings were stolen from an exhibition near Zurich. The two oil paintings, "Tete de cheval" ("Head of horse") and "Verre et pichet" ("Glass and pitcher"), were on loan from the Sprengel Museum in Hannover, Germany.

In 1994, seven Picasso paintings worth an estimated $44 million were stolen from a gallery in Zurich. They were recovered in 2000, and a Swiss man and two Italians were jailed for the theft.In the late 1980s, three armed men robbed a Zurich art gallery, making off with 21 Renaissance paintings worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Art Hostage comments:

$91,000 offered as an uncollectable reward, what a joke, best of luck !!

Old Vincent Van Gogh will be turning in his grave

After a successful dry run, this seems to be the "real thing" like Coke V Pepsi !!